st_arkravinghazelnut | Dog Days 2: The Doggening

Thor stops petting dog Tony long enough to pick him up and plant a kiss to the top of his head.

"It's okay," he tells him. He wonders if the AI Tony is going to repeat this conversation to the actual Tony when he is no longer in this guise. Thor isn't sure he would want him to.

He gently sets the dog back down into his lap, stroking him long enough that Thor does indeed feel himself calming. After a minute or two has passed, he opens his mouth to speak again.

"You know I care about you," he says. "You've already said that you'll come with me if we aren't able to put a stop to it. Why won't you allow anyone to support you in the same way?"

"I do things my own way. Always have." The projection turned his head with a sigh, relaxing his chin into his palm. "And now, with this many unknowns...I don't know what I can count on what I can't. It's nothing against you. I'm scared. That's when all my best work happens--or my dumbest decisions."

'Was that necessary?' Tony's ears laid flat against his head, but made no move to interject.

"I'll own that."

"Just because you have done things one way doesn't mean you have to continue to do so," he says. "Humans are adaptable. They change. They become something greater far more easily than almost any species I've ever known." Asgardians included. Had Thor not been summarily cast down to Earth, he doubts he ever would have changed his ways. He had humans to thank for helping him to change them.

"You can't keep using that as an excuse."

"You're right." The AI agreed with startling ease. The anticipation of each response was getting exhausting, and Tony's small head lolled.

"We're pretty adaptable. So I'll ask this." He cast a look at his original, noting his response, and looked back to Thor. "What are you asking of me?"

"It's not of you," he says, though maybe someday, if the original Tony dies, it might be. "He is headstrong. I can no sooner stop him from doing whatever he wishes than I can stop Loki." Loki, who was determined to throw his life away even now after seeing what their mother had shown him.

"I just want him to stay alive as long as he can. I don't want him to throw his life away. We can do it without him dying if he knows his limits." He scratches the pup right where neck meets back. "I just want him to believe it, too."

Because if he believed, maybe he wouldn't do something foolish that will get him killed.

There were plenty of times that Tony Stark, inhabiting the body of a small dog, let the physical feedback loop take over simply because it was easier. Now, he was caught in the ultimate temptation to do so, but his human mind was possessed by emotion he wasn't prepared to face anytime soon. He simply remained where he was connected to Thor, burying his cheek into his warmth. Whatever expression his AI was making, he could no longer see.

"...You know." He heard his voice begin, and there was a flicker of light from the corner of his eye as the projection of his body stood. "I am Tony Stark. But I'm not the Tony Stark--if you wanna go there, anyway. I can only help as far as I'm allowed." He glanced at the dog once more and back again, as if seeking input. "But can I just say one thing? I've got my own will. It really sucks watching the man I love grieve without having a physical body to comfort him."

That was a bit unexpected. Tony nuzzled into Thor's thigh to make up for the fact his creation couldn't.

Satisfied with that much, the AI lingered before the helmet responsible for making his image, running a hand through his incorporeal hair. "I can't control what happens next. All I can do is hope I don't become a necessity."

Thor looks up at the AI and manages to pull together a smile.

"I mean no offense, but I hope you don't either." He says it lightly, but he's serious. He really hopes that Tony dies of old age with a cluster of little red-headed grandchildren that call Thor uncle.

Thor know that Tony probably wants that, too -- but Tony's not going to put his own wants above the rest of the universe.

Thor, on the other hand...

"It probably wouldn't have had to come to this --" Thor stops there before he can say anything else.

“—If I’d never got shoved into that cave in Afghanistan.” He finished, turning around to lean back against the table.

Thor hums at that, his fingers, stopped a few moments before now running their hands through Tony's soft fur.

"You never told me what happened there."

He shrugged a shoulder, tossing a little smile their way. “Story for another day.” Then, the holographic Tony Stark blinked out of existence. Before he could be missed, the Iron Man armor rose, picking up his helmet and putting it back on his shoulders. “Alright, it’s a sad day when I have to choose between having a physical body and being handsome.”

"You could ask the other Tony to build you a proper body." Thor strains to remember the name of the scientist they met before Sokovia. He thought maybe she liked him, but now he can't even remember her name.

“Nah. Staying in my lane with this one. Anything I’d get would be built off a grid that ain’t—“ He patted the glowing arc reactor, making the pup’s head rise back up. He sounded a few little yips that didn’t quite make it out of his throat.

Thor sets his pint-sized paramor on the couch beside him and stands to retrieve the platter. He rips off a bit of sausage and offers it to Tonypup.

"Built off a grid that ain't...?" he asks, as he sits back down.

Tony rose to all fours and immediately began to dance in place at Thor intuitively understanding his request, and all four paws jittering as the still-warm treat approached his snout.

"I'm not taking a body powered by electricity, which is the best I could hope for with this rinky-dink operation. And the suit isn't programmed to adopt any human forms." The AI stated with a slight huff, adopting a three-piece suit while his helmet remained, making him look like the third member of Daft Punk. "If I pocketed any of the spare arc reactors before I got assimilated..."

"You don't think you could make one?" Thor asks, spinning a finger at the AI. Maybe Thor's confidence in Tony's abilities was ill-placed, but Tony was easily the smartest Midgardian Thor knew.

Thor waits for Tony to finish his current bite before he tears away a little more sausage and holds it between two fingers to take.

“Maybe with the lab. It’s in its final stages.” Throughout all the madness, he’d managed to stay consistent enough with Kitty’s aid. “Why? Would you like to see me with one?” He struck a slight pose, adjusting his tie. Tony barked once in excitement, standing on his hind legs.

"If you want a body, you should have one," Thor says, avoiding an answer. Thor snaps off a bit of bacon and mindlessly offers it to his excited canine companion. "Can you ask Tony for one?"

Thor can't get over how incredibly bizarre it feels to talk about Tony with another one.

The AI gave a knowing chuckle, but left it at that, the suit rippling back into his armor proper. "It's not a priority. You won't see much of me unless Numero Uno gets indisposed. Or wants to be in multiple places at once. Who knows." He gestured at the dog now working his jaws with the meaty treat. "Enough about me. Why don't you go frolic with the little guy?"

"You think I can train him to catch a frisbee?"

Thor looks down at the pup appraisingly. He's not entirely sure the pom can even lift a frisbee, let alone catch one.

Tony looked back up at Thor, pondering how long the 'witless dog' act should be carried out. 'Ah hell. Whatever. Let him have his fun.' Once he cleared the shreds of meat from his jaws, he jumped down and stretched out his fluffy legs, pacing in expectant circles for playtime.

"Only one way to find out, I'd say. Be gentle." The AI rubbed his chin, picturing the original reduced to a fine mist with a projectile thrown by the God of Thunder.

"I will be very careful." Thor is the very picture of serious. "He is absolutely precious to me. I assure you, no harm will come to him."

Thor rises to his feet, offers the AI a smile, then smiles down at the tiny Tonypup. "We should go find a frisbee, then. I think I saw one in the lost and found."

At that, Tony was reminded of his original mission. He started and struck all his limbs out at the ready, holding Thor's stare for a moment before spinning in a blur of brown and speckled black and white and shooting off like a bullet out the door.

"Tony!"

Thor gives the Tony AI a quick nod of appreciation, then bolts after Tony, leaving him alone with a half-finished plate of cheesy sausage and bacon.

Dog Days 2: The Doggening

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